


The sorceress and her knight

by Metabird (wheatear)



Series: Character dynamics [9]
Category: Final Fantasy VIII
Genre: Character Analysis, Devotion, F/M, Knights - Freeform, Meta, Nonfiction, Opposites Attract, Relationship Study, Sorceresses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 15:17:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23201983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wheatear/pseuds/Metabird
Summary: Even if you end up as the world's enemy, I'll be your knight. A meta analysis of the romance between Squall and Rinoa.
Relationships: Rinoa Heartilly/Squall Leonhart
Series: Character dynamics [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1654255
Kudos: 6
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge





	The sorceress and her knight

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for the halfamoon challenge at Dreamwidth.

Sometimes I wonder what it is about certain female characters that makes them more hated in fandom compared to others. Is it that they get in the way of a more popular ship? That they were created primarily as a love interest? Does that make them somehow not feminist enough?  
  
All of the above could apply to **Rinoa Heartilly**. You could characterize Rinoa as a damsel in distress and you wouldn't be wrong, but the fact that Squall goes to such extreme lengths to save Rinoa is one of the things I like about them. He's the [besotted knight](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23133181). She's the girl who needs to be saved, but she's more than that too. She has her own narrative and priorities beyond her relationship with Squall: the rebellion in Timber, the breakdown of her relationship with her father, her insecurities about keeping up with the SeeDs, and becoming a sorceress and everything that means to Rinoa personally and to the world at large.  
  
But of course the romance in FFVIII is central and it often gets criticized for how it was handled. I do think there are some problems with it, particularly the fact that it allows you as the player to choose all the asshole options with Squall and basically ignore Rinoa up until the point that Squall has his change of heart. If a player doesn't connect with Rinoa and treats her like crap, then the romance unsurprisingly feels forced. But that also says something about Squall as a character: he's an all-or-nothing kind of guy. Throughout the game he struggles with what he's supposed to do, and he defaults to prioritizing the mission because that's what he was taught to do and because it's easier than facing his actual feelings... up until the point that his Feelings hit him in the face. The fact that this happens while Rinoa is literally unconscious feels plausible to me for two reasons: 1) Squall is famously closed off and finds it borderline impossible to open up about his feelings, so of course he finally does it when Rinoa can't hear him; 2) you don't know what you've lost until it's gone. It's the thought of losing Rinoa that tips Squall over the edge and makes him realize how much he cares about her.  
  
Anyway, that's how I reconcile Squall's actions in the game. And it is Squall's actions that need to be reconciled. Rinoa is perfectly consistent. Rinoa's openness about her feelings, her affectionate nature, blunt communication style and general pushiness is exactly what Squall needs. It's a classic opposites attract dynamic. Rinoa is pushy; Squall is withdrawn. Squall lives in his head while Rinoa says everything out loud, and she practically forces him to communicate with her. But it's not their personality clashes that define them for me; they each bring something different to the relationship that makes them work.  
  
It's the potential moral conflict that I find most interesting. Rinoa is a character of principle, and Squall is a character who isn't meant to have principles; his job is to do the mission assigned to him. They're also star-crossed lovers: Squall is a SeeD and Rinoa is a sorceress, and this should make them enemies. Instead, Squall vows to be Rinoa's knight, and it is all very fairy tale, but it does give them a darker, more interesting edge. Squall chooses Rinoa over duty, and from that moment on it's clear that if it was Rinoa vs the world, Squall would destroy the world.  
  
And in the end, I like that Rinoa returns the favour: she saves Squall. She finds him and brings him back when it looks like he might be lost in time. What I love about their dynamic is not only that Squall is devoted to protecting Rinoa, but that Rinoa is also magically powerful in her own right. (It's similar to Dany/Jorah in _Game of Thrones_, as another example.) So there's a balance between them, and their very different personalities work well together because they bring out the best in each other: Squall grounds Rinoa, and Rinoa brings Squall out of his shell.


End file.
